The Noose
by earring-girl
Summary: Sasuke, traitor to Konoha and now current prisoner with a set execution date, and Hinata, the heiress to a powerful clan trying to escape marriage, learn how to cope. Sasuhina


Morning light came in softly through her sheer curtains and Hinata was able to roll over and ignore it for ten minutes. Unfortunately, she knew that this was all she would be able to enjoy because it was a school day.

Her door flew open, footsteps thundered and a smaller body, but not by much flung itself over her ribcage, successfully winding her. Hinata gasped, but was too used to it to scold her younger sister.

"Hanabi," she huffed with what little air she still had. "Please get off."

Hanabi's face invaded her personal space. White eyes, narrower and much more sharply cut than Hinata's had ever been in the same exotic setting their father had stared at her. "Promise you'll get up."

Hinata sighed and reached up to ruffle her sister's hair with a hand. "I always get up."

Hanabi smacked her sister's hand away, muttering about how long it took the maid to brush her hair.

Hinata pushed gently at her sister until Hanabi slid off her and landed on the floor with her legs crossed. "Hurry up you old woman. I can hear your bones creaking like father's old study."

Hinata rolled her eyes. "Soon you'll be able to enjoy creaking bones when you're my age too." She stretched and her entire spine snapped, cracking. Hanabi made a disgusted face.

"That's so gross."

Hinata ruffled her hair messily and Hanabi reached up to steal her sleeping yukata and run away with it. Hinata evaded and ran for the safety of the bathroom across her bedroom.

Minutes later, hair brushed and put up in a bun and teeth brushed, Hinata emerged from the bathroom to go downstairs for breakfast. A maid had brought her a white kimono with pale yellow pinwheels and a pair of tabi.

Hinata looked to see her father had also just arrived and bowed his head to her and Hanabi. They bowed deeply back at him and greeted him. Hiashi sat first, followed by Hinata and then Hanabi.

A pot of tea was set before them, three cups were face down on their little plates and three bowls of rice were set out. Small dishes of daikon were also set out along with grilled fish and vegetables.

In the middle of their relatively quiet breakfast, Hiashi looked at his eldest, "Hinata."

Hinata looked up, chewing rice as she did so. "Yes father?" she started to feel nervous.

"Have you decided yet?"

Hinata's eyes darted from side to side. "Decided what?"

Hiashi began to frown, "About your fiancé."

"Um…I haven't met him yet."

Hiashi's frown deepened and with it, his brows crinkled. "He's the Rain daimyo's son. There isn't anything to think about."

Hinata frowned slightly and took a bite of grilled fish. "I don't think I…am ready, exactly to marry."

Hiashi was still frowning. "You're being juvenile about this."

"I…I'm sorry, but I-I just don't want to settle down yet. Not yet," she emphasized.

Hiashi nodded complacently. "You're still young yet, but you will eventually. Don't waste a good opportunity when it's presented to you."

Hinata nodded. "I know."

"Which is why he'll arrive at Konoha in three days. They've already left the Rain Country." Hiashi went on, nibbling at his vegetables while Hanabi's eyes bounced in between her family members.

"C-Coming to stay?!" her voice rose to a squeak.

"Yes, I invited him. He'll be staying here with us. It will be a chance for you to…get to know him." Hiashi sipped at his tea.

"Hey, father does that mean he and Hinata are gonna share a room?" Hanabi piped in.

Hiashi frowned again, "_Going to_ Hanabi remember your correct grammar and no they aren't. It's improper."

Hanabi nodded, "Good."

Hiashi looked over at his youngest, "You don't still sleep in Hinata's room do you?"

Hanabi sniffed indignantly, "Of course not. I'm waaay too old for that."

Hinata bit back a giggle while she ate her daikon, knowing that it wasn't true and her younger sister would roll her over in the middle of the night and end up stealing most of the bed.

Hiashi didn't believe her from the look on his face, but he didn't comment. "Hinata."

Hinata looked up, yellow slice of daikon half in her mouth. "Yes?" She might have imagined it, but she swore that she saw pity.

Her father looked straight at her. "It's for the best."

…

…

"His execution is set in a couple of months."

Hinata blinked. It had been the first thing Tsunade had said when she sat down and she hadn't been expecting this. She'd come here for her work, usually volunteering around the Hokage office or the hospital or low ranked missions, and came especially when she knew her husband-to-be would be arriving soon. "Um…what?" she asked, staring at her blonde hokage.

Tsunade downed another cup of sake and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "The Uchiha – the traitor…the younger Uchiha, Sasuke is under our surveillance and has his execution four months from now."

Hinata nodded slowly. "Okay…but what does that have to do with my being here?"

Tsunade looked up at her slyly. "You said you wanted something to preoccupy you while your husband-to-be is in Konoha, right?"

How did she know about that?

Hinata nodded slowly, wondering if the reason her stomach was clenching was because of indigestion. "R-right," her old stutter came back in times of panic and severe nervousness.

"Well, I'd like you to take over watching him."

"S-Sasuke-san?" _the big bad boogieman?!_

"Yeah, we need someone to oversee him. He has episodes sometimes because of a poisoned chakra system." Tsunade's voice told her she wouldn't explain anything else.

"Um what about Sakura-san?" her fingers twisted in her lap, wringing the fine silk from the Silk Country.

"I asked, but she declined. Besides, Sasuke could probably use a change of pace for once." She downed another glass of sake before she just tipped to the whole bottle to her mouth.

Hinata waited until she was finished to ask, "What do you mean?"

Tsunade gave her a blank stare. "What do you mean what do I mean?"

Hinata's brows knit together, "I mean uh what you meant by a change of pace."

The blonde, busty woman smiled at her, like a cat that had caught the canary while the family was away, "Exactly what it's supposed to mean."

Hinata sighed mentally; she was too impatient and tired from having to deal with her father's and cousin's vague cryptic meanings to pursue the subject anymore. "I'll have to think about it."

Tsunade was busy looking for a second bottle, "What's to think about?"

Hinata frowned at her use of familiar words and her fingers twisted her usually immaculate kimono. "S-Sasuke-san is…Sasuke-san."

Tsunade frowned, but nodded in understanding. "If you want, I could discuss it with your father for you."

"No, I can do it myself," she waved her arms around a bit to further prove her point.

Tsunade gave a quick nod, "I'll want your answer tomorrow."

Hinata gave a series of quick, surprised blinks. "T-T-Tomorrow?!" her squeak was fairly high.

"Yes, yes, yes _tomorrow_, now get out I have many other things to attend to." Her hokage waved her off with a hand and an impatient glare.

Hinata gave an audible sigh, bowed and then scurried out of the room to hurry off home and plan a way to ask her father without having a panic attack from anyone in the family…

…

…

End Chapter One

Good? Bad? Ugly?


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